Why missionaries believe they can help the localization agenda

Larry Sthreshley is a far cry from some people’s idea of a missionary. He described himself as a “hybrid” between a missionary and development worker.

“I’m a complete public health professional for sure,” said Sthreshley, country director in the Democratic Republic of Congo for IMA World Health, a Christian nonprofit. He holds a doctorate in international health policy and planning and runs internationally funded public health projects in DRC, where he was born and has lived for 33 years.

While there can be cultural and operational tensions inhibiting effective collaboration between faith-based groups and international NGOs, according to Sthreshley, whose career has spanned the work of both, he believes the localization agenda would greatly benefit from their cooperation.

“You don't get that stability … in a five-year project, but if it's a 30-year project you’re going to make a lot of results,” he said. For Sthreshley, 64, his religion is a big reason for his professional longevity in DRC. “I've made a commitment to this country because of my faith and background. That has given me the ability to do more than others have been able to do in my position,” he told Devex via Zoom.

Many international development professionals jump from posting to posting every few years, but missionaries, in particular, have a reputation for staying put in one place for long periods of time. Sthreshley believes his extensive time spent solely in DRC — not typically seen as an easy place to work in — has earned him a status other development workers may lack.

“A lot of my ability to get anything done is the credibility I have with the Congolese, and the fact that I was born here and came back to work here puts me in a different relationship than many people that are trying to work in this country,” said Sthreshley.

He added: “They know I’m a permanent fixture, so I am not something they can just grab what they can and run with — which often happens in projects — they know it’s part of a long-term commitment to improving Congo and so they are more serious: both government people and people in the field that I work with.”

While smaller faith-based organizations often have excellent local knowledge and networks, alongside a passion for helping their communities and in innovative ways, they sometimes need professionalization of both staff and projects, and for scaling up programs, according to Sthreshley.

Sthreshley cited the NGO he helped found, Soins de Santé Primaires en Milieu Rural, or SANRU, which he said took “a serious professional approach to dealing with public health issues” — rather than hiring priests or relatives to unsuitable roles.

Despite a belief among some smaller faith-based groups that such a complex task is out of their reach, Sthreshley said that “any church group can do that if they actually made it their mandate” and used their networks to hire the most professional people they can, and “create the structures needed to work at an international level.”

He said: “If they really want to address the health needs, sanitation needs, development needs of the community, they need to get serious about it … You might have great people, but when they are working with budgets of maybe $50,000 to $100,000 a year you just can't go to scale with it.”

Sthreshley does advise smaller groups looking to grow to look for help from a more experienced international organization with expertise on key issues such as international financing and report writing, like what IMA World Health did for SANRU. “If I’d done it alone without any backstopping it would have been very difficult to know even where to turn,” he said.

But, in Sthreshley’s experience, “it’s very hard to find an international NGO that's truly willing to make that commitment — they are usually based on a model of a lot of central control and that doesn't work.”

This difference can be further compounded if decision-makers in those NGOs are people who may not be religious or convinced of the value of faith-based work. Donors, too, have been “sometimes reluctant to work with church groups because they think they have second agendas for proselytization … that doesn't fit with what they are trying to do,” added Sthreshley.

But Sthreshley said he has discovered a “lot of common ground” through working with “the best of both” donors and smaller faith groups, calling the cost-effectiveness demands of donors and commitment of missionaries has been a “great combination.”

“And in the end, there's not really that much conflict,” he said. “The donors want to have results with money … If you’ve been here for 30 years, you can tell them ‘this does not work, this does work, why don’t you try it,’ and they're willing to go down that way.”

But INGOs need to make a “paradigm shift” if they “truly want” to develop capacity in the communities they work in, said Sthreshley. “In the end, you will not achieve your goal of localization of projects and sustainability … unless we truly change the way we deal with our local partners.”

Devex, with support from our partner GHR Foundation, is exploring the intersection between faith and development. Visit the Focus on: Faith and Development page for more. Disclaimer: The views in this article do not necessarily represent the views of GHR Foundation.